Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Juvie, adult prison guards atop list of high-turnover state jobs

The combined turnover rate for Texas juvenile and adult correctional officers (i.e., prison guards) in FY 2011 was 23.4%, according to a new report (pdf) on state employee turnover by the state auditor. That's 22.3% for adult COs, and 39.6 for JCOs, including layoffs. Other key highlights:

Statewide, 29.6% of turnover came from involuntary separations - either firings or other reductions in force (RIF), sometimes for budgetary reason, with 14% of departing employees dismissed for cause and another 9% resigning in lieu of dismissal.

The Texas Education Agency had a higher one-year turnover rate than TDCJ, but that's a statistical fluke resulting from a budgetary RIF. TDCJ "accounted for the largest percentage of separations (29.6 percent) within the State. The majority of the separations at TDCJ during fiscal year 2011 were voluntary. TDCJ’s turnover rate was 19.2 percent in fiscal year 2011."

The most experienced staff are more likely to retire these days: Statewide across all agencies, "Between fiscal years 2007 and 2011, retirements increased by 40.6 percent." (Some of those folks may still be working: A wag might add that even Governor Rick Perry has taken retirement, and is surely counted among those statistics.) The number of voluntary separations increased 12.9% over last year.

"Thirty-four state agencies experienced reductions in force. The Texas Youth Commission, the Texas Education Agency, and the Department of Criminal Justice accounted for 72.6 percent of all staff reductions due to reductions in force in fiscal year 2011."

Reductions as TYC was merged into the new Juvenile Justice Department accounted for a large chunk of involuntary separations: "The three job classification series with the most separations as a result of reductions in force in fiscal year 2011 were Juvenile Correctional Officers, Program Specialists, and Administrative Assistants."

64 comments:

This is an employee retention rate that would be considered pathetic by all normal accounts, but seems pretty low for what I would expect for this growing Texas industry. Some people who find themselves employed in this type of industry have the qualifications and still managed to get fired, ie Ray Brookins. While others hire on realizing their conscious can’t handle the environment and either get fired for attempting to change it or simply quit. From the book In The Iron Cage, Ernesto Rodriguez using very kind and politically correct wording as can be used with regards to this population, states a fact well known by 41% of the US population.Correctional workers are sexual predators, undereducated, evil, corrupted, and sadistic. The only skills they have are to live off the misery of their fellow human beings—they are the scum of the earth!”This type of attitude is especially cultivated in gatesville.

Sheldon when are you going realize that prisons are big big business in Texas! Why in the world would you want to fix TYC when its better business to have a farm club or minor league to help juveniles become adult offenders!

There are dozens of signs that this is the case BUT just look where our House Corrections wizzard is now about to do consulting....Madden knows what he and a small group have done and now he's going to be consultant!Thats stinking laughable.

No, 05:48 is a realist. The Gainesville unit is down 100 on staff, and there are now 300 youth there, up from about 200. Gosh, I guess all those judges didn't get the message to stop sending offenders there. There has already been one escape, a first for Gainesville. And, another youth was just caught selling packets of heroin to the other youth. This was also something new at Gainesville. Still think downsizing was a good idea?

Think there might be a correlation between the high turnover rate and the high employee injury rate (workers comp. claims) in the TJJD? It's been a problem for years and became worse when Townsend and Company came on board. Who in their right mind would want to stay on board with that leadership? It's the very reason I quit. Take a poll grits and find out why people are leaving TYC. You'll see.

Word on the street is that now on the Crain Unit "aka Gatesville Gulag" there is one female inmate pregnant and maybe two more are pregnant. I said before, this is a little known dirty secret that a woman can be locked up for many years and all the sudden come up pregnant. There is no such thing as consensual sex in a correctional facility. This is called aggravated sexual assault and rape. Now the women will be punished and this is a fact by the historical track record in Gatesville; however, the male guards need to be charged and prosecuted for the felonies they have committed and receive the maximum amount of prison time. Only a desperate man in the free world who is unable to find a women in the free world would do this but you watch the people in charge will blame the women inmates, punish them and they will try to let the guards slip away quietly. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CONSENSUAL SEX IN A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY!!!! This would explain why the lesbian female guards are trying to provoke the inmates into fights now also because of their own jealousy and the fact that they break the law by coercing the inmates for sex also. The people who are running these units should be charge under Texas statue codes “The law of parties” since they help facilitate all this to happen. If someone in the free world sat by and either watched or help facilitate a crime they would be charged and imprison under the law of parties. This place is the worst of the worst of violating “Cruel and unusual punishment” that is guaranteed to all Americans whether incarcerated or not by the U.S. Constitution.

On December 17 2011, I was at visitation on the Terrace unit and witness two Hispanic female guards yell and scream out at the inmates and their family members. Those guards talk to everyone as if we were dogs. One of those guards conducted the strip searches with the door half open and you could hear them yell out at the inmates “take everything off”, “I said get out of everything”. Then you could hear the inmates cough twice in the room with the door half open. This is disgraceful to humiliate the inmates like this in front of their family members and then the visit is ruined after this. This was the worst visit I have ever had because of these two female guards. Those two guards yelled out at inmates and their family members while the visits were going on and those two guards were trying their best to provoke a fight and even stooped to name calling like kids do.

I can only comment on the units that I have witness seeing things during visitation but you would be surprise at what you see there and how stupid some can act even when they know or should know everything they do is being watched. The reason the units are under staff is that it is true the administration, administers and supervisors do treat the employees bad. This is because the officers will do some of the stupidest things such as steal, throw away and destroy an inmate’s personal property, deny the inmate meals or medical, stand there and watch the inmates shower when you are a male officer and you refuse to let them pull down the shower curtains. You refuse to give a female inmate on her period toilet tissue and tell her to use her sock then write the inmate up and the hearing officer punishes the inmate for this. You hand out jobs based on sexual favors and both the male and female officers do this and retaliate based on this same issue. You are a racist lesbian holding sex over the inmate’s heads or you are a high ranking officer holding the kangaroo courts and are a lesbian and punishing the inmates for the same behavior. I would love to see the background investigation being conducted on these employees in the female facilities. You are a young person with a very limited education in a rural school system and now you have unlimited power to abuse human beings and this power goes to your head. So you the officers shoot yourself in your foot every time by breaking the rules yourself and treating the inmates like slaves. The wardens and administrators are worst by not even being smart enough to manage a commissary contract. This is why the current system is broken when you put people in high positions that cannot count or negotiate simple contracts. The females cannot get sneakers because the people in charge cannot do anything right when it comes to the commissary contract. I would think anytime you are involved in bribes and kickbacks it would be hard to run any program right. They then tell family members they cannot send sneakers in because that would eliminate the kickbacks. They steal and throw away the inmates clothes so that the inmate can go to the commissary repeatedly and buy the same clothes over and over again and this could only be because someone is getting kickbacks. What else could be the excuse? Now to put any of these crooked and immature officers with very questionable judgment, ethics and morals in a free world hospital is a recipe for disaster just waiting to happen. The units I have been on in Gatesville are broken from the top to the bottom point blank. Those running the units if they have one must have brought their college degrees because I have witness 10 years olds who can make better decisions and I do not believe for one minute the guards have even a 9th grade education much less a high school education.

I have personally talked to two of the last three Wardens and it is the same excuse "inmates lie because they are there and guards are always right. The guards are criminal plain and simple at this unit. The new Warden is no better. This is a minimum security unit for the most part but is run like a concentration camp. They had a evil woman Captain there for years that physically torture women there and stories were posted my inmates family members to no avail because inmates and their families lie. One Asst Warden who is now a Warden right down the road got so defensive I thought she was going to fight me for asking simple questions. I would think you would be only wasteing your time talking to the Warden on this Unit because you have to look at the history and all the dirty secrets they are hiding. I do not think they planted any crops on the Crain Unit this year because in the past seven years the guards took the fresh veggies home and NONE made it to the inmates tables. This is the only minimum securtity unit in Texas that I know of that will not allow the inmates who behave themselves have contact visits with all their visitors. Most Wardens at the men's prisons allow all minimum security prisoners who behave themselves to have contact visits but on the Crain unit this is POWER and they enjoy the power to deprive, degrade and humiliate the women there. When a Warden abuses power just at visitation where it can be seen by all, you have to wonder what happens to the women there when visitation is done. The Crain Unit will always be an evil place run by evil people. The last Warden there broke the laws pass by state lawmakers concerning the telephones for the first year and everyone turned a blind eye.

I want to tell you all a story. On the Crain Unit the Warden took the flash lights away from the guards at night which should be a safety violation. Now the guards are mad and take it out on the inmates. So lights out at 10pm then the do the 2 bed checks between lights out 10pm and lights on 4am. They turn on all the over head lights and make the inmates sit up in bed for count which takes them an hour to count to around 100 people then they turn the lights out and in 2 hours the same thing happens again. So now the inmates who have to get up and go to work at 4am instead of sleeping those six hours at night they spend at least 3 of those hours getting up and sitting there with the bright lights being counting. I am trying to figure out how on earth would it take a hour to count 100 people sitting on their beds. This is called cruel and unusual punishment by the U.S. Constitution. Some one hopefully will file a federal law suit. Now this is what baffles me is how come the people in charge of these units are not being charged with crimes under Texas state code (Law of Parties) for helping to facilitate this? This is why in my opinion the only thing worse than a criminal is a correctional officer.

11:05..."if the TJPC staff are placed in the driver's seat then we will see a massive change in the facilities."

The only good thing at TJPC is leaving and heading to CASA. As for the remainder of TJPC, I think that is a little more horse than they can ride. That is a surefire recipe for a Charlie Foxtrot if you get my drift.

The entire Texas Department of Corrections and ALL related areas needs to be torn down and totally rebuilt from the ground up. I was incarcerated for seventeen long years (for a crime I didn't do) and NEVER had one violation of the rules. Rather than being applauded for my ability to follow the rules and get along with other inmates...I was told on many occasions that "I was manipulating the system!" Yet...during this same time I physically saw sexual abuse of inmates on numerous occasions, along with drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, cell phones and other "contriband" items being brought into the units on a daily basis. Instead of bringing in more uneducated employees from foriegn countries (such as Nigeria) to oversee the failing system...I strongly suggest that former inmates be hired to point out the obvious failures in the now totally corrupt system. In the U.S. there are many successful companies providing "security consultation" by the real experts, the ex-felons and burgalers that know the short-comings and facts.Thank you Grits....for a job well done! It is a shame that so much of the public has 'blinders' on, instead of paying attention to the REAL problems of our society.

Gee whiz if you can't do the time, then don't do the crime!I get tired of the whining of exoffenders, offenders and their families. Sounds like ya'll think it is the correctional offiers fault the you are in prison! As for the book, The Iron Cage, since I have not read it, then I cannot comment on it.Sounds to me an ex offender wrote that book. However I will say in my 13 yrs at Allred, I did not see any officers as Sheldon tyc #47333 described. Just folk wanting to get the night over. Yes I know of some officers who are / were real butt heads. As for the retention rates of officers. There are many TDCJ/ TY officers get their 10 in and then leave. And quiet frankly some people cannot do the job!

People should have the right to expect decent and humane treatment when they are locked up AND when they are employed to watch those who are locked up, right? So why do us JCO's get the short end of the stick time and time again?

The reason they quit is because they get verbally and physically abused, spit on, work long unexpected hours, have to deal with an unresponsive Administration whose main goal is simply CYA -- stuff like that. At the Giddings State School, we are fed empty promises alllll the time concerning how changes will be made but they only changes that occur is that the youth get even MORE coddled as time goes on.

Just recently heard they got a nice new 3-D TV for the kids; how many JCO's can afford one of those for their OWN kids?

A State job at TJJD is nothing more than a velvet lined rut for most of us JCO's, and while many will stay for "the benefits" such as health care -- a good number of us (including myself) have made plans to be gone ASAP no matter WHAT uncertainties lie outside the gate.

If the State is honestly concerned about retaining veteran staff and getting the kids sent back out into Society as reformed/rehabilitated young men and women then they will have to show US more respect and treat THEM more like the felons they actually are.

Sheldon, I am a hard working officer for the state of Texas in the former TYC and I take offense at these remarks. I have been here almost 16 years and while there have been issues most of the issues have been brought upon the staff by administration not allowing us to control our units. The BS call line where a kid can make false accusations against staff is a morale buster. We deal with the kids no county wants to deal with. We get kids with so many mental health issues it makes us crazy. We can't discipline the ones out of control for fear of repriasal. Gangs rule here because administration WON"T LET US DO OUR JOBS. We don't mistreat these kids but they need discipline and they way it has been run since Ms. Townsend has arrived is not the solution.

Back in 73 my buddy and I went to pick up his girlfriend and a few of her girlfriends at the Gainesville facility around midnight. I’m sure it wasn’t because they were released. Ah found childhood memories.

I personally know 3 former inmates who made some substantial bank trafficking drugs at the Gainesville facility from the late 90’s up to as recent as 2007. According to the last guy who was released in late 2007 the staff there were to busy acting on the pedophilic tendency’s to care about drug trafficking. Apparently Gainesville was pretty good at keeping the pedophilia on the low because that facility had a higher number of staff that did not condone this type of behavior that is so wide spread at other tyc facility’s. I understand this has changed in the last year or so. Also you have to remember this is the oldest tyc facility and has the longest history of child abuse and cover up of any of the current tyc facility’s.

The gatesvile facility on the other hand is where tyc learned to be the sick corrupt agency it is today. The birth place of state sponsored child abuse had to be turned over to tdc, on the one hand, to continue the support of the hillbilly indigenous population sucking the state teat and on the other to keep 80 years of secrets hidden from the public. This is a town whose very livelihood has always depended on the blood of orphans and widows and fought bitterly to maintain that status. This is a dark little shit hole of a town where the people are about as friendly as the indigenous in the movie Deliverance. The worst of the worst are employed at the old training school. IMO, the people down there are responsible for holding the darkest of Texas secrets. If that old basterd of a dog man is still alive, whom those POS’s actually elected sheriff of their little hillbilly county, it would be a real hoot to hook his ass up to a lie detector.

A very credible author Dr William Bush has writen a book that chronicles the cycles of abuse/scandal/reform with the states training schools and is a great read for anyone interested. All based on factual research from state archives. BTW, I know a guy who was there when beat-um Blair was super. Great story about how beat-um Blair would come down to the gym and choose a fish to fight and beat up. One day beat-um Blair made a bad choice which ended that ritual. Typical, get those jco’s one on one and they punk themselves.I also know another guy who worked in the mechanic shop and says Winthrop’s car accident was no accident. The lengths the gatesvilites and tyc will go to cover up their sin against widows and orphans is beyond belief.

I didn't think you could specifically cite an escape from the Gainesville unit, or a previous time when a youth was caught trafficking heroin there. None of the long-time staff at Gainesville can, either.

Anonymous 12/28/2011 2:10 I realized that prisons are big business in June of 1975. However it was recently after attending a panel discussion at the Book fair in Austin featuring Dr Bush that I realized prison reform in Texas, and especially in the juvenile arena is a lost cause. It was the moderator of the discussion who has some pretty impressive skill sets that convinced me those working to reform the juvenile justice system are nothing more than mice on a wheel screaming “look at me, now pay me dummies”. I have since shifted my focus on increasing the 13% number, a daunting task I realize, knowing you people are about as useless in the work of helping at risk youth as can be. Goes against your mandate I suppose.

Anonymous 12/29/2011 9:08 My old school Terrace, sounds like not much has changed. Is it still predominantly black? Figured Jim crow is alive and well there. I noticed the sign still says Terrace School out front where the other signs have been desecrated by the tdcj people. We took so much better care of that place back in the day than the current controllers. They should be ashamed.

Crain Watcher The lights on count during lights out is a very old torture ritual. Those basterds did that crap to us boys back in the day. Apple don’t fall far from the tree in gatesvile.

OK enough of this ex office boy building tender whining as anonymous c o punk 12/28/2011 12:57 see’s it. How fortunate I am to have left the bondage of the state 35 years ago to have such a wonderful life. As the saying goes, if you’re no better than a corrections officer, then who are you better than? Absolutely no one.

Anonymous 12/29/2011 2:59 Tough Shit. I’m afraid the people whose shoulders you stand on coupled with the knowledge I have of the agency’s history and stories from alumni released as recent as last month only goes to fortify my belief. Actually I could not phrase my opinion of you people as nicely as Ernesto’s, so I opted to just state what 41% of us know as fact. I’m entitled to my opinion and you yours. I have a lower opinion of tyc staff who deflect their punk attitude to their superiors for not being able to control the kids. Any jco that can’t handle a 40:1 ratio with a few good clothes room boy’s is nothing more than a gd punk in my books. It’s not Mrs. Townsends fault your week it’s your own. Buck up or get some skill sets so you can find other employment. Grits was kind enough to place an employment link at the bottom of the post, use it.

I stopped writing this due to empty responses, however I’m always open to discussing my opinion. I think I would be totally entertained at my age at the possibility of having my “attitude adjusted” especially by today’s tyc emps. Fair warning my opinion of pedophiles and those who would defend and deflect such a culture hasn’t changed much since my days at Terrace and Clemens. There is a reason why you types of people are placed on the garden squad/protective custody or post anonymously.

Sheldon say'sCrain Watcher the lights on count during lights out is a very old torture ritual. Those bastards did that crap to us boys back in the day. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in Gatesville.

Thanks again Sheldon for justifying in my mind that all the inmates I know down there are not lying about this one. I have been talking to several inmates down there in the (Gatesville Gulag) as far back as the 80's and this is the first time any of them told me about the lights on torture; but' like you said the rotten fruit did not fall far from the tree and it seems they have bought this torture technic back. I have heard for over twenty years about sexual predators down there and that is still alive and well but this is the first time I have heard of this torture technic. I am watching closely what many inmates have told me about the recent events involving the possible impregnating of several female inmates who did not arrive down there pregnant. If the correctional officers down there want respect then they should show the inmates, friends and especially the family members just a little respect. Sheldon, by the way I enjoy the history lessons and you are right TDCJ inherited the Gatesville Gulag because one day maybe 100 years from now those skeletons will start to wash up out of the ground or a developer will bribe and convince the state ledge to sell them that valley of death and the whole world will see the evil history of that evil valley.

You left off the turn over rate for case managers at TJJD facilities. They are charged with providing the treatment program (I KNOW it's a joke) and yet have so much paperwork it can't all be done in a 40 hour week. So most work off the clock or take home work since they can't unlike JCO's get Over Time. Most burn out and do the bare minimum or leave.

Sheldon, I have worked for TYC in Austin for almost 10 years. I agree with everything you have written. You can always tell when a JCO is lying, they are breathing. In TDCJ its when they have a pulse. This place is so corrupt. I also want to warn you to watch yourself because of how you say it. You are insulting the most dangerous people in the world. You have a wisdom about this garbage and a stand up attitude to tell it how it truly is. That is above and beyond what people can deal with. You are educated and successful the inmate nightmare our people spend hours in think tanks to prevent. And the corruption goes to levels we can’t imagine.Crain Watcher, my boyfriend works for TDCJ and they joke about how Gatesville is worst than Abu Ghraib. The people in Gatesville do not work and play well with the rest of the agency. When people are transferred out to other units they have many human rights issues that need to be corrected. People say to fix Gatesville the inmates would need to be moved and what Joshua did to the Canaanites would need to take place. Its that bad."Prisons, mental hospitals, and other institutions are a thermometer that measures the sickness of the larger society. The treatment society affords its outcasts reveals the way in which its members view one another - and themselves." (From the Preface of the book: Accomplices To the Crime, 1969, Grove Press, Inc., New York, NY) From my experience I believe our sick state is by design and we should vote wisely.

It all starts at the top and rolls downhill. Townsend and Company need to go folks.

Hey I have a question: All those people that Pope fired for no real reason - they were marked ineligable for rehire in TYC. Does that change now this new agency has taken over?? Can they return in the new TJJD? I mean, they were eligable for hire in TJPC - and some went to work for the counties? Anyone know that answer?

Leadership decisions will be made by the board next week - the power of democracy relies on concerned citizens to make their voices heard. Let the TJJD board and the Governor's office know if you want to see change. That may be more powerful than simply posting here. Gov's office contact: Chelsea Buchholzchelsea.buchholtz@governor.state.tx.us512-463-2208

I will be emailing and calling as much as possie. If we do not step up to the plate folks you will continue to work in one of the worst possible place of employment. Get the word out and let's get our voices heard somewhere else other than this blog

Amnesty International condemned the Women’s prisons in Gatesville about 10 years ago for locking women who could not keep up on the field slave squads or the prison guard’s justification was refusal to work in steel cages mounted on trailers packed in standing room only without even water. What amazes me is we cannot even do this to prisoners of war (terrorists) we capture on the battlefield. I cannot see how the people in charge of these units the last twenty years have not been taken to The Hague for crimes against humanity. The problem is most of these women are called throw a ways and this stuff would fly in a men’s prison. It is so much easier to abuse little kids and women in this system we have. This country of ours condemns other countries for this same behavior but here in Texas slave labor is alive and well. There is no difference in slavery and the state of Texas owns these people right or wrong. To compare the Gatesville unit with Abu Graib is putting it mildly. They do the same things to these women as far as humiliation and degrading them. The only difference is the U.S. Army put those soldiers in Prison for doing these things and most of them were reservists who were correctional officers back here in the USA. Physical and emotional torture is alive and well in Gatesville because it is in many of their genes and they train the new officers to be cruel and they all know they have unchecked power.

I had a family member who was recently moved to the administration segregation at the Crain unit on a Friday and was not given her property back until that Monday night. All because another inmate drop an anonymous note on her. So they left her in there all weekend with no property, no writing material and not even a toothbrush. I had always thought they had to at least give them writing material, a bible and hygiene stuff. TDCJ says everyone will brush their teeth once a day but I see they do not follow TDCJ rules on the Crain unit. Now explain to me how this is not cruel and unusual punishment no toothbrush but they can be written up for not brushing their teeth. I wish the FEDS would go and investigate this unit; however, they would hide all the people being abused and hand pick certain people to talk to them.

Those TV’s that are bought for TDCJ and TYC prisoners come from the profits made from the commissary. So this is our money (family and friends) that send it to our love ones and not the state. They do not sell old timey TV’s anymore so what do you expect them to sit in their cells all day with nothing. But it seems that is what is going on in Gatesville. There are a lot of people who cannot afford a new TV but that complaint does not hold water because if they have a TV at home it has to be a flat screen because that is all that is sold. That is an old complaint of how easy the prisoners have it today. I have been told in Gatesville the rope off half the dining facility now and run everybody through to eat and if the guards do not like someone they throw them out without being able to even eat. A Billy goat would not eat most of that stuff they serve our love ones so we have to send money so they can buy commissary to eat and that is where the TV’s come from. We were charged a $100 fee this year for medical even though the U.S. Constitution requires by law that inmates receive free quality care. Once again that is a joke.

For those of you interested in raising your concerns with leadership, here are board e-mails.

Look at it this way: the percentage of folks in Central Office is very small compared to those who are on the ground, working directly with youth. What is it, maybe 10% of employees in Austin? There is already new leadership in Austin, with only 2 of the 13 board members of TJJD having formerly served on the TYC board. It only makes sense that they would want to hear from the 90%.

If the only place you make yourself heard is on this blog, the status quo will remain.

The Texas Youth Commission, the state’s juvenile corrections agency, promotes public safety by operating juvenile correctional facilities and by partnering with youth, families, and communities to provide a safe and secure environment where youth in the agency’s care and custody receive individualized education, treatment, life skills and employment training and positive role models to facilitate successful community reintegration.

Are you kidding me? OMG.... here's what it should say...

The Texas Youth Commission, the state’s juvenile corrections agency, compromises public safety by allowing youth to run freely and beat eachother and assault staff and by cowarding to youth, families, and advocacy groups, provides an unsafe and insecure environment where youth can refuse individualized education, treatment, life skills and employment training and learn nothing or accept responsibility for their crimes and thus become unsuccessful in their community reintegration.

Just curious how heroin finds its way into a prison. The inmates aren't free to come and go without searches, mail is supposedly checked, visitors are searched so how? Carrier pigeons or corrupt guards?

Alan Walters interviewing for the ED position? You're kidding! Who else is interviewing, Ray Brookins? Longevity does not necessarily translate into competence, ethics or integrity. This is why TJJD (nee TYC) will never change. Administrative in-breeding is not the answer.

Down to three candidates for ED, interviewing today with the full board: Mike Griffith former CJPO in Dallas, Cherie Townsend and Ralph Thomas, Deputy Director of Operations, VA Dept of Juvenile Justice.

You wanted three chiefs on the board so the field would have a voice! Boards met twice and the three chiefs have screwed the field both times. They had dozens of calls from thier area associations and other outside of the respective areas and voted thier own agenda. Again the field gets screwed by its own!

The fix was in from day one, Fisher named the chair, Vicki offered a job with help from the Governor, really. TYC was and iks the worst Juvenile agency in the nation, looks like we just need to get the DOJ involved and prove this point. I know everybody needs a job but staging a employee walkout on MLK day might just send a message, if nothing else maybe Cherie will have to work a dorm for once her career. Just a thought, the flu bug is going around.

20 plus years here and it's the very worst it's ever been ! And I've been told don't leave this time it will get better. This is the saddest, sickest joke I've ever seen. How can a preacher be a part doing this, covering lies and knowing harm continues to be done to children! And then three probation officers that all but stopped sending kids to TYC because they "knew" it was a bad place, vote to keep the same director. It's a sad sad day when you get to not wonder if there is evil in the world, you get to see it face to face. And it's not the young offender it's the adults that in charge, deciding its ok to keep allowing wrong to go unchecked. And then act surprised when these guys go to prison

So if a youth throw urine on a correctional officer or anyone for that matter, can you drop this youths stage froma 4 to a 1 or even a 2? Let's say the juvenile punching his peer because his peer does not want to join a gang, and the injury is just a bloody nose, lip, swollen eye, would the assaultive youth have his stage dropped from 4 to 2 or even a 3?The answer to these scenarios is "No", but in the real world when this occurs society has consequnces for your actions, but not in Cherie Townsends world of therapy and treatment, where anything goes regardless of cost. I would like to see what would occur if this same youth threw feces on her, would it go un-checked as it does every day for the JCO staff?Some people live in a world of theory with little to no actualreal world experience, this is who was chosen for TJJD to "Lead" this new agency. Someone must have been paid off or reviewing data for the past 3 years is no longer required to see the lack of progress. As you will see over the next few years, those youth who recieved Conextions as their treatment will come back, get killed, or go onto TDJC, which is all sad when you think this could be changed. I am not advocating locking youth up and throwing the key but real life expereinces when you break the rules and realize consequences will always be atttached, and not a Hostess Ding-Dong for getting out of bed on time, what a joke this has all become!!!

why in the world would they select that woman who has ruined an agency to continue? folks there may be a handfull of cronies that are happy with this decision but the vast majority - and I mean the VAST MAJORITY - have no faith in her leadership or believe in her ability to make things right. CoNextions is a dismal failure, and Townsends failure to recognize this makes things very unsafe for youth and staff. This is very disturbing news.

The next thing in this surreal journey is to see if she blends the top level leadership to have some from TJPC and some from TYC or if she just keeps her TYC management team intact. If she keeps all TYC people, that is a clear sign that probation in this state is done for. Probation will need to be prepared for less money and no support from the state level. And everyone better be prepared for the TJJD facilities to go right back up to pre-2007 levels. SB653 will do nothing but provide lip service to a probation driven system.

What a joke... Cherie Townsend is a LOSER. Everyone who had a hand in this decision should be held accountable. I'm leaving this shit hole now because it's only getting worse. What a dumbass decision. Cherie Townsend??? Are you kidding me???

i keep saying, it's the Governors office who decided this. Look at the board and why they were chosen, if you really want to make an impact document all of the failed interventions, lack of programming, lack of specialized treatment groups, absconds, the readiness of youth leaving institutions to halfway houses, (the list goes on), and submit this to the state auditor, go to their website, they have a 1-800 # and an address, you can remain annonymous and hopefully send a message of absolute failure for the youth and staff.

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."